Anthony comes back confused

Nugget's role on Olympic team led to depression

Denver Post

Published 5:30 am, Sunday, September 5, 2004

DENVER - Denver Nuggets star forward Carmelo Anthony is used to being the go-to guy, but his demotion to the bench for the bronze medal-winning USA Basketball team left him feeling empty and alone, he said Thursday.

Instead of celebrating his first Olympics, he spent many nights in Athens by himself in his room, depressed, eager to get back home.

"I would play my (video) games, and hope and pray that it would be over with," he said.

In his first in-depth interview since the Olympics ended Sunday, Anthony said he felt confused about his role early on, and admitted he could have handled his lack of playing time better but questioned why U.S. coach Larry Brown blasted him in the media. Nevertheless, Anthony said he would like to play in the 2008 Olympics.

"I got unfinished business to take care of," Anthony said. "I was a part of it. But I don't think I was a part of it like I should have or could have been."

Getting benched, he said, was a shock because he never had been in that situation. Anthony has been a high school All-American, an NCAA champion at Syracuse as a freshman and a rookie standout with the Nuggets.

"That would affect anybody," Anthony said. "I'm not saying I'm the greatest player in the world, but I've never sat on nobody's bench."

Asked Thursday about Anthony's comments, Brown would not address them directly, saying, "I appreciate the sacrifice these guys made coming to the Olympics. ... We didn't have time to prepare. The team was put together in the last minute. When a lot of guys didn't want to go, those guys did and I'm proud of that."

Following are highlights of Anthony's take on his Olympic experience:

On Brown's coaching:

Anthony acknowledged a healthy respect for Brown, whose Detroit Pistons won the NBA title this year, but said the U.S. team would have done better if the players were happier and played more loose.

"He is a hell of a coach," Anthony said. "But at the same time, he ain't Jesus, either. He still makes mistakes. He ain't perfect. ... There are just some things you can't approach the same. We weren't the Detroit Pistons. We didn't have 90 games to play together. We had two weeks."

How he got into Brown's doghouse:

"It all comes down to the first (Olympic) game (against Puerto Rico)," Anthony said. "We lost (92-73) and I (showed poor body language) on the bench. After that game, people were looking at me like I was selfish and I was only thinking about myself."

Anthony played well in early exhibition games but saw his playing time decrease rapidly after a combined 4-for-16 shooting in two games before Olympic pool play. During the week after the Puerto Rico loss, Anthony said he met with Brown and left the meeting feeling they were on the same page. A day later, after a victory over Australia, Brown unloaded on him to the media.

"He's not buying in to what we're doing, he's having a hard time accepting what we're trying to do," Brown said. "You can tell by the way he acts, by the way he plays."

Anthony was stunned to read the comments and said he never spoke personally to Brown the rest of the Games.

"I thought everything was cool. (Then) I hear it in the paper that I'm not on board and not going with what he wants me to do. What do you want me to do?"

On what he should have handled better:

"Not playing. ... You could be the strongest person in the world, and to go through something like that knowing you are supposed to be out there, what type of player you are and that you're not a bad person. You feel like you're supposed to be out there helping your team. But that was my first time going through that. I didn't know how to approach the situation."

On Team USA winning a bronze medal:

"I was happy a little bit, a tiny bit, I'm not going to lie, that we got the bronze. But, the other 95 percent of you?"